Krone thrilled to be back / Hall of Famer returns to form by winning on 52-to-1 shot

When jockey Julie Krone retired in 1999 to tend to her dying mother, it created a void only she could fill. Now she is doing just that, returning as horse racing's winningest female jockey and No. 22 overall on the all-time earnings list.

Six weeks into a comeback, Krone, 39, will make her first Bay Area appearance when she rides Spensive for trainer Bob Baffert in the $75,000- added Gold Rush Stakes on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.

"It's not too much pressure when you're riding a 50-to-1 shot," Krone said by phone from the Hollywood jockeys' room in the squeaky voice that always belied her toughness. "You're just trying to get a check (finish in the top five to earn a piece of the purse), so you try to put them in position to do that. Even after a couple of days, I can't believe my horse won."

Krone has made a career out of making people believe.

Born in Benton Harbor, Mich., Krone was raised on a farm and learned about horses from her mother, who was a dressage rider. When Krone was 15, her mother took her to Churchill Downs and forged her birth certificate so she could get a job galloping horses.

Krone thrilled to be back / Hall of Famer returns to form by winning on 52-to-1 shot

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Krone rode in her first races at unrecognized fair tracks in Michigan, then moved to Florida to live with her grandmother and embark on a career as a jockey. She finished second on her first official mount, Tiny Star, on Jan. 30,

1981, at Tampa Bay Downs and won her first race there with Lord Farkle two weeks later.

In a world dominated by men, Krone broke barriers and records. In 1987 at Monmouth Park, she became the first woman to win a major track's riding title. In 1993, she became the only woman to win a Triple Crown race, taking the Belmont Stakes with Colonial Affair.

Krone rode in 14 Breeders' Cup races, and although she didn't win one, she had two seconds, a third and a fourth. She rode 3,545 winners before she retired (and nine since) -- Patricia Cooksey is second among females at 2,123 - - and she was inducted into the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame in 2000.

But with the winners came the crashes. Two months after her winning Belmont,

Krone went down in a horrifying spill at Saratoga, injuring her right ankle (14 screws' worth) and elbow and bruising her heart. It took her nine months to recover, and 13 days after she began riding again, she broke both hands in a spill at Gulfstream Park.

Krone carried on, even winning with all three mounts at Lone Star Park on retirement day April 18, 1999.

"When I quit, a lot of it was personal," Krone said. "My mother was terminally ill, and I wanted to spend time with her. I was getting a divorce that wasn't easy. It just seemed to be a good time to take off. It's difficult to be with a dying person you love so much, but my brother and I got to spend the last six, seven months with her, and it was a time I didn't think about racing at all."

After her mother died, Krone did some commentary on horse racing telecasts and then moved to Southern California in 2001 and married Daily Racing Form columnist Jay Hovdey.

"Before I knew it, three years had gone by," Krone said. "I started getting on horses, and it was pretty fun."

"It sort of took on a life of its own," she said. "Whenever I went to the races, I could feel the competition. It wasn't any specific plan; I just went out and got on horses and had a good time. I gave it a year of galloping so I'd be sure to be ready when I came back."

Krone has won with nine of 64 mounts in her comeback, none more satisfying than the Underwood.

"Literally, while galloping out, I said, 'Thank you, God, so much for this, ' " Krone said in a post-race press conference. "I'm just so grateful and happy to get this first stakes win since I came back. When a longshot like this wins, it just goes to show you can't have any preconceived notions. You always have to try hard and have faith."